In recent years, mobile terminals, such as a mobile phone, have been widespread, and mobile phones have been on sale which have a plurality of casings, allowing the combined configuration of the casings of the mobile phone to be changed into a variety of configurations. This type of a mobile phone is typically equipped with one antenna. However, a plurality of antennas are required for a multi-band type mobile phone that utilizes a plurality of radio frequency bands. Further, since the reception sensibility of antennas of the mobile phone is caused to change due to the combined configuration of the casings of the mobile phone or due to the direction of the mobile phone when it is held, some mobile phones are equipped with a plurality of antennas in order to obtain a stable reception sensibility.
For example, JP2004-363863A discloses a mobile phone which is equipped with a plurality of antennas. A plurality of antennas are typically mounted in a mobile phone having a plurality of casings in the following manner. A radio circuit and a first antenna are installed in a first casing, a second antenna is installed in a second casing, and the radio circuit and the second antenna are connected to each other through wirings which are placed between the casings. In use, the first and second antennas are switched to each other by a switching means.
However, the above-described structure is problematic in that the arrangement of the second antenna is limited due to the requirement of connecting the radio circuit in the first casing and the second antenna in the second casing to each other with wirings, and for mobile terminals which are required to be downsized, in particular, the flexibility in arranging antennas is lowered.
Further, recent mobile terminals often undergo a complicated change of the combined configuration of the casings for product differentiation. When the structure of connecting the casings is complicated, wirings which connect the radio circuit and the second antenna together need to be routed within the casings. As a result, there arise problems in which antenna characteristics are deteriorated because the wirings become long, and are also changed because the arrangement of antennas varies depending on the combined configuration of the casings.